Contents

Synopsis

Set to the backdrop of 'Awesome Mixtape #2', Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team's adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill's true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes' aid as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand.[2]

Plot

In 1980, Meredith Quill is courted by Ego, a “spaceman” who shows her an alien seedling he had planted in the woods of Missouri.

Ayesha hires Yondu Udonta, who has been exiled from the greater Ravager community for trafficking children, to recapture the Guardians. Yondu’s crew track down the Milano and capture Rocket, but when Yondu shows reluctance to turn Quill over to the Sovereign, Ravager Taserface leads a mutiny with help from Nebula, who tricked Groot into freeing her. Quill, Gamora, Drax and Ego, along with Ego’s empathic assistant Mantis, travel to Ego’s home, a living planet that is an extension of his body. Ego explains that he is a god-like being called a Celestial, who created a humanoid avatar to travel the galaxy and interact with other species. Quill soon learns he can access and manipulate the power within Ego’s planet. Drax becomes friendly with Mantis, who wants to reveal a secret about Ego.

Taserface imprisons Rocket and Yondu aboard the Eclector and turns Groot into a mascot for the crew, while Nebula takes a ship and leaves, planning to track down and kill Gamora, blaming her for the torturous cybernetic enhancements inflicted by her father Thanos. In their imprisonment, Rocket and Yondu discover they are very alike, and Yondu shares his low opinion of Ego, who originally hired Yondu’s Ravagers to deliver Peter after his mother’s death. He reveals to Rocket that he decided to keep Peter safe in his own way, instead of handing him over to Ego. Groot attempts to steal a new Yaka Arrow Controller for the Yaka Arrow to aid an escape attempt, and is helped by Kraglin Obfonteri, a Ravager loyal to Yondu. Together, Rocket, Groot, Yondu and Kraglin escape in a detachable section, and engage in a risky space maneuver to reach Ego’s planet in time to help Quill. Taserface alerts the Sovereign of the escape, before Yondu kills him and the Ravager mutiny.

Nebula arrives at Ego’s planet and tries to kill Gamora. Gamora survives and reaches an uneasy truce, and together, she and Nebula explore the caverns beneath Ego’s planet and discover hundreds of skeletal remains. Ego reveals his master plan to Quill: he travelled the universe and planted seedlings on thousands of worlds that would terraform them into new extensions of Ego, but he needed a second Celestial’s power to activate the seedlings, so he conceived children with hundreds of women all across the galaxy and hired Yondu’s Ravagers to collect them. Every other child was killed when they proved unable to access Celestial power, but Quill can harness the power, and Ego uses him to activate all the seedlings, which begin their terraforming that will eventually consume every world and every person. Quill is hypnotised by Ego’s power until Ego reveals he deliberately caused the death of Quill’s mother, prompting Quill to fight back.

Mantis informs Gamora, Drax and Nebula of Ego’s plan just as Rocket, Groot, Yondu and Kraglin arrive. Reunited, the Guardians fight their way through a fleet of Sovereign drones, as well as Ego himself, to reach the core of Ego’s planet where a thick shell protects Ego’s brain. Groot plants a bomb made from the stolen Sovereign batteries on Ego’s brain, and most of the Guardians escape while Quill remains to battle his father using his access to Ego’s celestial power. When the bomb explodes, Ego dies and the planet collapses. Yondu sacrifices himself to keep Quill safe, as he has come to view him as an adopted son. Later, Nebula reconciles with Gamora but chooses to leave anyway. The Guardians give Yondu a traditional Ravager funeral by releasing a string of fireworks, and dozens of Ravager ships arrive to pay their respects.

Afterwards: Kraglin takes up Yondu’s arrow and controller and tries to master it, only to end up non-fatally impaling Drax; Ravager leader Stakar Ogord is moved by the death of Yondu, his friend and former teammate, and reunites with his former teammatesCharlie-27, Aleta Ogord, Mainframe, Martinex and Krugarr; Ayesha is seen with a Birth Pod, containing a man inside named Adam, in response to her fellow Sovereign questioning her about said machine; years later, Groot continues growing back to normal size, exhibiting typical teenage behaviour in the process; and the Watcher Informant discusses his experiences on Earth with a group of Watchers.

On July 23, 2016, at the San Diego Comic-Con, names to many of the Ravagers were announced, along with the first piece of footage. The cast assemblage ended with the revelation that Kurt Russell would portray Ego the Living Planet, solving the mystery of the parentage of Peter Quill.

As Ego the Living Planet was officially considered a Fantastic Four character, the movie rights to the character initially belonged to Fox. On November 14, 2016, Paul Wernick and James Gunn revealed that Marvel Studios had agreed a deal where Fox would surrender the movie rights to Ego in exchange for being allowed to alter Negasonic Teenage Warhead's powers (intending to use the character in Deadpool). James Gunn admitted that had no deal been reached, he had no back-up plan in regards to Quill's parentage.[12]